Yuja Wang's new "The Vienna Recital" on DGG

[Lance]

Always delighted to get a new Yuja CD ... and a great job in presentation DGG did with this one [486 4567, 78:20]. According to the blurb on the back panel: "The all-embracing programme of Yuja Wang's 2022 Vienna recital allowed this 'electrifying' (Los Angeles Times) pianist to brandish her fiery virtuosity in Albéniz and Ligeti, bring her mature musicality to classics by Beethoven, Brahms and Scriabin, and unleash her boundless musical imagination in minatures by Glass, Marquez and Kapustin. According to the Viennese newspaper Der Standard,'the hall went wild' at the end of this concert in the Vienna Konzerthaus."

Here's what we get:
Albéniz: Malaga & Lavapies (from Iberia)
Scriabin: Piano Sonata No. 3, Op. 23
Kapustin: Jazz preludes Nos. 10 & 11
Beethoven: Piano Sonata #18, Op. 31/3, "The Hunt"
Marquez/Gomez-Tagle: Danzon No. 2
Gluck/Sgambati: Mélodie from Orfeo ed Euridice

[maestrob]

Interesting repertoire Lance, thanks for the alert!

Can't wait to hear it.

[Lance]

Hmm ... frankly, this time I was somewhat disappointed. The technique is assuredly there as we would expect. A good start with the Albéniz piece, I enjoyed the Glass Etude No. 5, the Brahms Intermezzo was way over romanticized and stretched too far, the Beethoven, her centerpiece? It's missing something, perhaps drama and was somewhat unorthodox in its interpretation. Scriabin? Could take it or leave it. A delightful Mélodie by Gluck/Sgambati concludes this recital, and here her tone and expression shimmers. The other pieces not mentioned ... didn't leave me with much musicality though she plays well. Otherwise, I am a great fan of Yuja but not particularly with this recital. I will be curious to know what others think. Good piano, good sound. If nothing else, there will be something there for everyone!

[Ricordanza]

I am a great fan of Yuja but not particularly with this recital. I will be curious to know what others think.

Lance, I don't have this recording, but as you will note in my review of her recent Philadelphia recital, our thoughts about her playing seem to run in parallel directions. H

[Belle]

Yuja Wang is technical wizard and she is ideal for much of the recent repertoire, like Glass and Kapustin. Probably Scriabin and Liszt. But her mannered playing, by which I mean alternating pp with mf no matter how the score reads, is a deal-breaker.

In the romantic repertoire I also find her playing somewhat glib. I've checked the mannerisms myself when reading scores (OK, editions can vary) during some of her performances and recordings - only because I felt something wasn't right. Some people will call that 'interpretation' and that's a discussion for another day. But adherence to the score has to count for something!!

[Lance]

Absolutely! Couldn't agree more. "Interpretation" can embrace outstanding, good to bad to an "excuse."

[Truncated] But adherence to the score has to count for something!!

[Belle]

I don't want to think negatively about Yuja Wang (BTW, have you noticed the copy-cat pianists in the skimpy livery appearing on YT?). Her performances of modern composers and the speed at which she learns these works makes my head spin, as well as her huge repertoire. This off-the-charts impressive.

But I've checked out her performances against the score (as I've mentioned before) and found these wanting. Normally I don't do this with an internationally famous musician but something nagged at me about why I felt dissatisfied by some of her performances. That's when I discovered her mannerisms. (BTW, even in Vienna some audience-members were reading scores when Beethoven sonatas were being performed!! This was always in seats with limited viewing.)

Plenty of people will disagree with my comments about Yuja Wang, based on her sheer virtuosity - but even Liszt himself grew tired of pyrotechnics and virtuosity in performance.

[maestrob]

I actually also have mixed feelings about this CD.

First, it's interesting that there is no applause...does this mean that she wandered over to a recording studio to re-record this repertoire? If so, MHO is that the studio is kinder to her than a live recording would be, in that engineers routinely lop off 10dB from the loudest passages, and raise the level another 10-15dB on the quietest passages, thus correcting her extreme soft dynamics that don't work so well in a live hall.

I actually enjoyed this CD more than her recent Carnegie Hall concert, with the exception of the Brahms, which had no drama or substance. The Beethoven was just a bit too fussy for my taste as well, but still not quite as offensive to my ears as others here.

All in all, I'm glad to own this one after all, unlike the Carnegie Hall experience, which I would not care to repeat.

[Belle]

I'd say what's happened is that the engineer/producer has balanced the performance dynamics just as you've suggested, after the recital, and simply removed the applause at the same time.

All this modern recording engineering begs the question about performance and interpretation altogether, as it has right from the days of more sophisticated sound engineering equipment. I remember from the Igor Levit documentary "No Fear" that he was recording Beethoven and the engineer was marking the score and checking the dynamics with Levit afterwards, as well as advising him to do it again during the performance in a specific way. Obviously some of it could be 'corrected' by the producer!

This was very revealing!